General Gaming Article |
- Stanford Researchers Teach Machines to Beat Captchas
- Book Publisher Files Mass P2P Lawsuit
- November 2011: Power Up Your Social Media!
- Motorola Job Cuts On The Way, Will Cost The Company $31 Million
- Malware Removal Guide 2011: How to Get Rid of All The Latest Malware
- Chrome Web App of the Week: Fieldrunners
- Bill Gates Takes Steve Jobs' Criticisms in Stride
- Initial Ultrabook Sales Fall Short of Expectations
- Halloween Thrills: 15 Of The Scariest PC Games Of All Time
- TouchPad Tablet Returns to Best Buy (and HP Officially Out of Stock)
| Stanford Researchers Teach Machines to Beat Captchas Posted: 31 Oct 2011 03:06 PM PDT
While some of these numbers might not sound like a huge problem, the team suggests that any hit rate over 1% means Captcha is too broken to continue in use. Since the cost associated with having a computer try again and again to solve the Captcha is so low, those with malicious intent could blow through this security measure with no problem. Most companies use various layers of security, but Captchas are relied upon heavily for weeding out bots. The Stanford team had no luck whatsoever with Google's ReCaptcha system, which is used widely. This indicates that the visual filtering an de-blurring techniques aren't entirely there, but its success with other systems could mean it's just a matter of time. |
| Book Publisher Files Mass P2P Lawsuit Posted: 31 Oct 2011 02:42 PM PDT
"Defendants are contributing to a problem that threatens the profitability of Wiley," the complaint reads. Wiley goes on the say the exact monetary damage cannot be calculated, but it feels remuneration is warranted. Interestingly, Wiley and Sons is taking a more measured approach than movies studios that have employed similar methods in recent years. All 27 defendants are located in New York, and the infringements occurred just a few weeks ago. That avoids many af the pitfalls that have derailed litigation from the movie studios. Other mass-lawsuits have aimed not at taking defendants to court, but to scare them into paying settlements. it's not clear if Wiley will get the names behind the IP addresses, or if they will go ahead with court cases. We're frankly a bit perplexed that a copmany which actually sells a book about how to use BitTorrent can do this. How do you feel about this development? |
| November 2011: Power Up Your Social Media! Posted: 31 Oct 2011 02:38 PM PDT
Click the cover image on the right to download the PDF archive today! |
| Motorola Job Cuts On The Way, Will Cost The Company $31 Million Posted: 31 Oct 2011 02:24 PM PDT
The vast majority of the costs associated with this endeavor come from the severance Motorola is going to have to pay to former employees, about $27 million in all. The remaining $4 million is likely going to come from costs associated with closing facilities. According to the company, these changes are aimed at improving the Motorola's long-term financial performance. That probably mean removing positions that will no longer be needed at Google. We can't know for sure is this is going to affect the way Moto works in the phone business, but despite what Larry page says, the deal was probably more about patents than anything else. Shareholders are expected to approve the buyout on November 17. |
| Malware Removal Guide 2011: How to Get Rid of All The Latest Malware Posted: 31 Oct 2011 01:57 PM PDT Four steps that will keep your PC happy, healthy, and crap-free
Malware sucks. In the best-case scenario, it craps up your system with unwanted files and occasionally makes itself known in the form of a persistent pop-up window or annoying browser-based toolbar. In the worst-case scenario, malware completely takes over your desktop or laptop and ruins your life. Your system slows to a crawl. You can't even boot into Windows in the time it takes you to walk to the kitchen and back. Your data gets sent off to a faraway Internet land or, worse, your actual keystrokes are recorded for some unsavory individual to see. Malware locks down your browser, making you unable to actually do any browsing without being carted off to some bogus domain. You can barely run a program in Windows without getting bombarded by fake advertisements, programs, and dancing people on your desktop. We can't make this stuff up. So what's a computer enthusiast to do? Step zero: Read this guide, because we're going to walk you through all the key details you need to know to both rid your computer of this junk and keep it free of downloaded nasties forevermore.
What's that? The first step doesn't involve files to download or utilities to blast malware from your system? Exactly. The most important thing you have to realize in order to fight the great malware war is that you, and you alone, are the first line of defense. You have only yourself to blame if your computer is completely overridden with problem-causing, yet preventable, programs.
Much of the more annoying malware that you can accidentally befriend requires your cooperation in order to get on your system in the first place. You have to download and run an unknown file or agree to have a toolbar placed on your system as part of a software installation routine. You have to accept certain kinds of JavaScript or be fooled by scam websites that claim to be running a virus scan on your system (to name one such harrowing tale). In short, you have to let your guard down.
So how do you protect yourself against your own habits? Keep in mind this rule of thumb: If it's too good to be true, if it looks strange, or if it's completely unknown to you, don't run it. Don't install it. Don't accept it, don't hit "yes" to it, and don't let it get anywhere near your system. Google, Bing, and Yahoo are your friends. Use them to find more information about a given program before you agree to let it do anything on your system. Don't surf the Internet blindly, assuming that everything on a website is safe for your system to digest.
We mentioned that a bunch of malware can come through your browser—'tis a shame, we know. Vulnerabilities in browsers and plugins (and user error) can bring your system to its digital knees faster than you can spell the word "crap" in "crapware." So let's start with the simplest step: Stop using an outdated, insecure browser. Make sure you're at least sporting the latest version of one of the Big Three: Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Chrome.
But which? Various research reports have dubbed each of these three browsers as the "best in class" against malware and other social-driven attacks. Our personal preference when it comes to safety is Google's Chrome browser for three reasons: First, it's the only browser to use sandboxing as its primary defense mechanism. This method combines a JavaScript virtual machine with an OS-level sandbox to prevent successful attacks against the browser's rendering engine from affecting a user's file system. Second, Chrome has been, hands down, the hardiest survivor of each year's Pwn2Own hacking contest at the CanSecWest security conference: Talk about a real-world verification of its security capabilities, eh? Third, Google updates the Adobe Flash and Acrobat Reader modules itself. So if you're running the latest version of Chrome, you're running the latest, most secure versions of Flash and Acrobat Reader available (click the wrench icon and About Google Chrome to verify that you're running the latest updates).  Firefox's NoScript add-on is an excellent tool for preventing page plugins from running on untrusted sites. But we're just getting started. JavaScript vulnerabilities—including blatant attacks that rely on a user's cooperation to work—can just as easily affect your browser. If you're rocking Firefox, grab an extension called NoScript, which will allow you to disable a page's plugin elements (including JavaScript and Flash!) by default, unless you trust the site enough to give 'em a go. Chrome doesn't have an add-on for the same feature, but you can disable JavaScript by default in the browser's Under the Hood settings section. And if you want to specifically allow a site's JavaScript to function, just click the associated X icon in the browser's address bar to set up site-specific trust. Or, if you don't mind using a slight variant, you can do your best to mimic NoScript-like control using the NotScripts add-on. Other extensions and add-ons worth wielding to fight the malware fight include Web of Trust, KB SSL Enforcer, Adblock, and HTTPS Everywhere.
Running a perfect browser setup only goes so far in the battle against malware: Remember, you are your own worst enemy. Assuming that malware could slip through the gates at some point, what are some of the free software tools you can use to equip your system with powerful protection before a rogue app gets out of hand? First up, you'll want a comprehensive scanner running day in and day out to make sure that each and every bit of software you slap onto your computer gets a quick check. For that, we turn to none other than Microsoft's own Security Essentials app. Our reasons are simple: It's free and it works. Is it as comprehensive as a premium paid solution? No, but our rationale here is that it's better to have free AV that has updated definitions than a paid AV suite with a lapsed subscription. Install Security Essentials and you'll get instant access to frequent Microsoft virus and spyware updates, in addition to a real-time scanning mechanism that protects your system from anything you download from the Internet (or, if you're fancy, anything on a USB device from the moment it's jacked into your system). MSE schedules nightly scans to run by default, but feel free to reschedule these for any time that suits you. Additional options let you set the exact parameters for when the scanning should start, which include the ability to restrict virus and malware hunts to periods when your CPU use is below a certain threshold. Some of the very best antimalware apps on the market can be had for free, but with an asterisk: We're talking, of course, about SuperAntiSpyware and Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware. We're fans of Malwarebytes' offering, mainly because the freeware version of its powerful antispyware app gives you a few more features to tinker with than SuperAntiSpyware's. The hitch with both? No real-time protection, so make sure you set a mental task for yourself to run these apps on a daily or weekly basis. If you want to get truly hardcore, be sure to grab ComboFix, as well. This app, often considered the "nuke it from orbit" option for certain nefarious bits of malware, uses the Windows Recovery Console to find and eliminate annoying malware. It doesn't protect your system up front, but it's a great tool to have in your back pocket when disaster strikes.
 RKill is an excellent tool for detaching malware that won't stop running on your system: If it's running, it's not getting deleted by your antimalware apps. So you're infected. Shucks. Malware comes in different forms and annoyance levels, depending on just how well the particular piece of offending software has entangled itself into your operating system. This makes it difficult for us to deliver a fix that fits every situation. However, we can at least give you a few helpful suggestions for freeing your PC from malware's clutches. First off, see if a simple scan from Windows Security Essentials stops your issue dead in its tracks—likely not, but it never hurts to try the simplest solution before you start rolling up your sleeves a bit more. Update your definitions and select the full‑scan option, and then sit back and hope that Microsoft's scanner can fix your problem. No luck? Next, fire up Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware, make sure your definitions are updated, and run a full scan on your system. If it catches an issue, great; if not, and your malware problem persists, it's time to get a little more creative. Fire up the utility RKill, and use it to try to force-stop any malware processes that happen to be running in your system's background. Run a full scan with Malwareybytes' Anti-Malware one more time. If you're still out of luck, you'll want to reboot your system into safe mode (keep pressing F8 as the BIOS loads until you're given the option for safe mode) and repeat the same RKill/Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware step as before. You're doing this in an attempt to unhook whatever malware's plaguing your PC from the operating system itself: It's not getting wiped out because it's still active (and possibly protecting itself from your removal tools). Still hurting? Fire up ComboFix and let the scanning and removal tool work its magic—if, for some reason, it can't remove whatever's affecting your system, you'll get a lengthy log that you can post on one of ComboFix's associated web forums for further assistance from qualified log parsers. At this point, it might be worth your while to check out other scanning tools not explicitly mentioned in this article, which range from Spybot Search&Destroy, to McAfee Labs Stinger, to GMER, to Sophos Anti-Rootkit, and the list goes on. And you might also benefit from grabbing a few live CDs, like AVG's Rescue CD or Hiren's BootCD, for malware and virus removal.
There are nearly as many tools for removing malware as there is malware to infect you. The better you can protect your PC up front, including training yourself to recognize potential malware when it presents itself and keeping it off your system to begin with, the less you'll have to fool with potentially complicated removal techniques later. But if you have to go down this route, and simple scans aren't getting the job done, don't forget to try ripping active malware processes out of your operating system and booting your PC into safe mode. After that, exorcising these software demons from your system is all up to your tenacity, your search engine research skills, and your knowledge of third-party removal apps—Or, if worse comes to worst, your backup schedule. You know, a clean install is but a few clicks away!
So you're paranoid. We get it. There's nothing wrong with wanting even stronger security measures than those we've mentioned in this article. For the best-in-class prevention against debilitating malware and viruses, you have two options: a virtual machine or a "live CD." A virtual machine is exactly what it sounds like: a pseudo operating system that runs within your existing operating system. Think Inception. Anything that happens to your OS‑inside‑an‑OS cannot break out of the dream. Applications, malware, drive formats, you name it: That which transpires within the virtual machine's operating system will never affect your actual operating system running one layer above it. Beware, though: Some malware can tell if it's running on a VM and won't activate if it is. This can make compromised software seem harmless, and could get you to lower your guard and install it on your real machine, where the malware will activate. Our recommendation? Check out VirtualBox, a totally free VM that lets you install any Windows version you want. You can also super-protect your primary system (or browsing experience) by running your actions off a live CD. A live CD is typically a version of the Linux operating system that's been installed on a physical disc or USB key. Restart your computer and boot off a live CD, and you'll find yourself within a self-contained OS that's free of malware and other problems the second you boot. Once you're finished, presto: Your changes can disappear and you'll be back to a brand-new version of the OS to boot into the next time you need it. Our recommendation? Check out Xubuntu. It's not as graphically interesting as other Linux "buntus," but it does give you a bit more flexibility for running the operating system on lesser systems—like those with anywhere from 256 to 512 megabytes of RAM. |
| Chrome Web App of the Week: Fieldrunners Posted: 31 Oct 2011 12:07 PM PDT
Fieldrunners is tower defense at its best. Players are tasked with keeping an invading army out of their base by killing off as many of their troops as they can. Starting off with enough cash to purchase a few weapons, players place their armaments on the field of battle in the hopes of creating a kill zone. The more enemy troops you kill, the more cash you generate. This allows you to buy beefier weapons as well as upgrade your existing emplacements. Choose the right mixture of firepower, place it in the right pattern and your base defense will be an impassable wall of death. Get the mix wrong, and you may as well put out a welcome mat, because all your base? It belong to the enemy. Fieldrunners for Chrome is free to play, but gamers do have the option of paying a premium to unlock additional game levels and features.
We think that after a few minutes of playing the free version, you'll agree that paying for a little more action is definitely a worthwhile endeavor. Be sure to check back every Monday for another edition of Maximum PC's Chrome Web App of the Week.
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| Bill Gates Takes Steve Jobs' Criticisms in Stride Posted: 31 Oct 2011 11:12 AM PDT
"[Bill Gates] just shamelessly ripped off other people's ideas," Jobs is quoted as saying in his authorized biography. Those words, now emblazoned in print and read by millions of people, put Gates in the unenviable position of responding while deciding whether to simultaneously take the high road by not returning pot shots at his deceased competitor, or take the gloves off and start swinging at Steve Jobs' ghost. Actually, it was ABC's Christiane Amanpour who put Gates in the hot seat by asking him to address those statements in a televised interview. "Well, Steve and I worked together creating the Mac. We had more people on it, did the key software for it," Gates said. "So over the course of the thirty years we worked together, he said a lot of very nice things aboiut me, said a lot of tough things." "He faced several times at Apple the fact that their products were so premium priced that they literally might not stay in the marketplace. So the fact that we were succeeding with high volume products, including a range of prices, because of the way we worked with multiple companies, it's tough. And so the fact that at various times he felt beleaguered, he felt like he was the good guy, we were the bad guys, you know, very understandable. I respect Steve. We worked together, we spurred each other on, even as competitors. None of that bothers me at all." High road it is. You can watch the interview here. Image Credit: Flickr Joi |
| Initial Ultrabook Sales Fall Short of Expectations Posted: 31 Oct 2011 10:44 AM PDT
They're too friggin' expensive. That's the plain and simple truth, and the reason why sales are falling below expectations so far. According to DigiTimes, Acer and Asus reckon they'll move move 100,000 Ultrabooks by the end of the year, well short of their initial targets, which were set at two to three times that many. Over in Taiwan, Acer's 13.3-inch Aspire S3 is selling for around $1,100, or about $100 higher than comparable MacBook Air models, DigiTimes says. You can find $1,000 Ultrabooks stateside, but not overseas. Of course, the Ultrabook segment is brand spanking new, so it's too early to make any kind of determination, especially if prices start dropping down in the coming months. |
| Halloween Thrills: 15 Of The Scariest PC Games Of All Time Posted: 31 Oct 2011 10:05 AM PDT Halloween means different things to different people. For some, it means taking the kids out trick-or-treating; others use it as an excuse to dress like Lion-O and Cheetara and drink excessive amounts of alcohol. This gallery isn't for them. No, this gallery is for you, our fellow PC gamers, for whom Halloween is the perfect reason to turn off the lights, jack up the volume, and try not to pee your pants as angry demons, hungry aliens and the troubled ghosts of psychic children try to turn your virtual character's insides into your virtual character's outsides. Below you'll find 15 of the scariest, spookiest, downright most horrifying games we've ever played, ranging from first person shooters filled with cheap scares to scripted adventures that include some of the most intensely troubling scenes we've ever seen. Sorry, Eternal Darkness and Clock Tower fans; this article's PC only. No doubt we've missed a hidden gem or two – including Dead Space, which narrowly missed the cut – so be sure to share your favorite scary games in the comments. |
| TouchPad Tablet Returns to Best Buy (and HP Officially Out of Stock) Posted: 31 Oct 2011 09:53 AM PDT
You have to purchase a new HP or Compaq laptop, desktop, or all-in-one computer. Starting on November 1 (tomorrow) at BestBuy.com and November 4 in Best Buy stores, a 32GB TouchPad tablet will cost $150 with the purchase of a qualifying HP or Compaq system. The offer is only available on the 32GB model, which means your chances of scoring a $99 TouchPad (16GB) are practically nil at this point. What if you don't want a new HP or Compaq system, but are still interested in purchasing a TouchPad tablet at Best Buy? The electronics chain will happily oblige, provided you were recently hit in the head and would somehow agree to fork over $600 for the standalone device. Yeah, right. So, should you take advantage of this deal if you happen to be in the market for an HP or Compaq system anyway? That all depends on how comfortable you are owning an obsolete, albeit low cost full-sized tablet. You'll still be able to surf the Web from your couch and post updates to Facebook from the can, but you'll also be able to do those things from Amazon's upcoming Kindle Fire, a $200 tablet that's 7-inches in size and anything but obsolete. On a side note, some users have been successful in porting Android over to the TouchPad, and word on the Web is that HP is experimenting with putting Windows 8 on it. |
We've all struggled with those often unreadable security Captcha codes from time to time, but if some 
We wouldn't have thought that the "For Dummies" series of how-to books would have been in such hot demand online, but publisher Wiley and Sons has 
Motorola Mobility is moving full-speed ahead in preparation for the impending Google takeover, but 
Even though Chrome has proven itself to be a capable gaming platform, precious few of our favorite pre-existing titles have managed to make their way to our browser windows. Sure, Angry Birds and Plants versus Zombies is great, but even marquee titles can only be played for so long. Fortunately, Android and iOS legend Fieldrunners is ready for a little play time with Chrome. We've invested so many hours into this tower defense classic, we had to make it our Chrome Web App of the Week.
There are a lot of adjectives to describe Bill Gates, the Harvard dropout who co-founded Microsoft and went on to become a billionaire. Before he passed away, Steve Jobs offered some of his own. He called Gate "unimaginative" and said of his nemesis, he "has never invented anything, which is why I think he's more comfortable now in philanthropy than technology." The verbal beat down didn't stop there.
Intel came up with the Ultrabook category in hopes of blowing Apple's MacBook Air out of the water. Ultrabooks are supposed to be thin and light. They're intended to be powerful and well equipped with features. And they must be aesthetically pleasing, or at least that's Intel's vision for the Ultrabook category. And so far, Ultrabooks are all of these things, so why aren't they selling?
Hewlett Packard over the weekend began sending emails to customers who signed up for updates on the TouchPad tablet to let them know the company is officially out of stock. Whatever remaining units HP had were sent off to retailers, but as far as HP's online inventory, it's been "depleted," HP said. For those of you still interested in snagging one of these fire sale tablets, Best Buy is one of the few places you'll be able to pick one up without an aftermarket price hike, albeit with a one very big caveat.| You are subscribed to email updates from Maximum PC - All Articles To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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